You sound a little more jaded than me about the whole thing. There are plenty of run of the mill quests, but I've also found enough fun boss encounters and interesting backstories to make up for it.
The key difference between this "Kill Stalvan" and other MMORPGs' is that in this one, I've learned enough story along the way that I already hate him and want him dead. I have fun doing the quests and I never did in EQ or CoH. Maybe that will fade with time, but in 44+30 levels so far it hasn't.
I didn't answer your question about time. Please don't mistake killing a named monster for camping a named monster. In general, you can finish most quests in half an hour to an hour. There are plenty of longer ones, but usually you'll find yourself doing 2-3 at the same time then travelling back to town to get your rewards all at once.
The only quests that needs more time usually are in instances (think dungeons but sometimes outdoors), where taking your group all the way to a boss encounter may be a couple hours.
There are your garden variety of quests, especially in outdoor zones. For example, "Kill 10 Stranglethorn Raptors" is the first in a series, then on completion you get "Kill 10 Lashtail Raptors," (higher level) followed by "Kill 10 Jungle Stalkers" (higher still). After the Jungle Stalkers, you get one to kill a named high level raptor, with a nice raptor-skin tunic as a reward.
What separates it from something like EQ is that the rewards are always very good xp and often items (sometimes your choice of items). They're things you would be killing anyway, only if 10 kills gets you 2500 xp, the quest reward will plop another 3000 on top of it.
Another thing that sets it apart is that the writing is excellent. They can manage to make basic "talk to these 5 people" quest lines develop into an epic scope.
There are plenty of others, quests that lead to unique boss encounters, saving lost people, etc. Basically, the quests in each zone tell the storyline behind the place. Last night I was solving a murder mystery, the night before I was stealthing into a tower and pickpocketing vital information from a boss that would kill me in one hit. Before that, I was defending a small town in the woods from a huge ogre that walks through and kills people nightly.
And there are a lot. You can only have 20 quests at a time, and it's extremely easy to fill that up if you just accept them all. You often have to pick and choose ones that look interesting.
I was a level 44 rogue in WoW beta as of this morning (level cap is 60) with about 6 days of/played. Most of the quests are soloable, but not all. They show up colored by difficulty, and usually tough ones are much easier if you just wait a couple levels to do them. What may take me a team of 3 at 35 is usually soloable by 38.
Blizzard has said explicitly that they want it to be possible for all classes to solo to 60, and from what I've seen they're living up to that. If I just grind xp and don't quest, the 40-45 levels take maybe 3-4 hours a piece (rogues tend to level solo faster than most classes, but not a lot faster). Really though, you usually won't be just grinding because the quests will overlap things you want to kill anyway, and the xp and item rewards are very good.
But car buffs want more horsepower and better mileage.
No, they want more horsepower. Mileage is a distant 2nd or 3rd concern. When that Civic owner throws a prefab Greddy kit onto his B18, does he care that his mileage just went from 28 to 17 mpg? Not in the least.
"Normally-aspirated" cars like the Corvette
You mean naturally aspirated? Maybe this is a regional thing, but I've never heard of N/A meaning "normally."
Pontiac Vibe, a small car that's popular with street racers. Films like "2 Fast 2 Furious" have inspired young auto enthusiasts to buy cheap "tuner cars" like the Vibe, and muscle them up.
Someone with a Vibe came into one of our local shops this weekend looking for aftermarket parts. There wasn't a single aftermarket part for it from any of their distributors. You have to go out of your way just to find intake/exhaust for those things. If they're going to use the example of a 2fast2furious car, maybe pick one people actually mod?
Assuming that were possible, you wouldn't see yourself probably. You'd see the earth as it was a billion years ago, or something like that. But then again, no telescope on earth can see around the planet's curve and back to itself, so could a telescope in space see around the universe's curve (if it's there)?
You've literally spent 2 hours with nothing to show for your character.
Hopefully, you had two hours of fun to show for the monthly subscription you're paying. If you weren't having fun during those 2 hours, why were you doing it?
It will probably be a crime to disable the device.
It's also a crime to run without a catalyst, with advanced ignition timing, with some types of aftermarket exhausts, and with high-intensity headlights that aren't factory installed. But, how many Civics do you see running around with all those? Quite a lot. Yeah, they'll get fined or get a fix-it ticket if they're pulled over and the cop feels like enforcing those laws, but most of them aren't caught. Those that are usually only fix it temporarily, or just pay the fine and go on breaking the law.
This type of thing will prevent your average soccer mom from driving drunk, but will it prevent a 20-something who's even slightly into cars, or has a friend who's into cars? Probably not.
CONNERY: I'll take MY GREAT THING for 600, Alex.
HOST: "Uh, That's MAGRATHEAN, Mr. Slartibartfast."
CONNERY: "But my thing is great! That's what your mother said last night!"
The cutting out of Tom Bombadil, for one example, was a perfect example of mass-marketing(it would helped to understand the world of Tolkien better, the mythology, and the role the Ring had with regards to the powers that be).
Having Tom in there would have only been more confusing to the casual viewer, as it was in the books to most readers. Yeah, he's an interesting guy, but his background is an utter mystery and still debatable to even the most diehard Tolkien fans.
Bombadil's presence doesn't help explain the background mythology, rather it is explained only by extensive extra background mythology. Jackson had to ask himself, what is that point of this scene, how does it add to the movie, and what does it mean to the casual fan? The sad answer is, in this case, he doesn't add a whole lot.
Yes, obviously that's true to some extent for any framework. But what I meant here is that MFC is sort of the antithesis of Perl's "there's more than one way to do it." When writing COM+ or LDAP or even wizard-based dialogs, you have virtually no flexibility. There's a standard, "This is how it's done; this is the way you will do it," mentality that you just never see on the Linux side of things.
Everything that you can possibly do has been done before and cataloged, and you must use the library for exactly and only those specific things. Go to Linux and you'll see people using common libraries to do bizarre things that their creators absolutely never would have thought of. That way of thinking and that flexibility of design just plain doesn't exist on the Windows side.
The biggest difference between the two of us is that he has an almost religious believe that, if Microsoft says you are to do things a specific way, you have to do it that and no other way
This could well come from experience with MFC. It's certainly my experience that when you're trying to use MFC to get things finished, you can either work with it or against it. When you want to do things your way, you end up with a huge program that's hanging together by threads, but when you do it its way, you tend to get small, simple, elegant code.
The Linux user may say, "How could I do this better?" but the Windows user says, "How would Microsoft intend for me to solve this problem?"
"The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how much I play, I'll never be as good a a wall. I played a wall once. They're fucking relentless...." --Mitch Hedberg
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You sound a little more jaded than me about the whole thing. There are plenty of run of the mill quests, but I've also found enough fun boss encounters and interesting backstories to make up for it.
The key difference between this "Kill Stalvan" and other MMORPGs' is that in this one, I've learned enough story along the way that I already hate him and want him dead. I have fun doing the quests and I never did in EQ or CoH. Maybe that will fade with time, but in 44+30 levels so far it hasn't.
I didn't answer your question about time. Please don't mistake killing a named monster for camping a named monster. In general, you can finish most quests in half an hour to an hour. There are plenty of longer ones, but usually you'll find yourself doing 2-3 at the same time then travelling back to town to get your rewards all at once. The only quests that needs more time usually are in instances (think dungeons but sometimes outdoors), where taking your group all the way to a boss encounter may be a couple hours.
There are your garden variety of quests, especially in outdoor zones. For example, "Kill 10 Stranglethorn Raptors" is the first in a series, then on completion you get "Kill 10 Lashtail Raptors," (higher level) followed by "Kill 10 Jungle Stalkers" (higher still). After the Jungle Stalkers, you get one to kill a named high level raptor, with a nice raptor-skin tunic as a reward.
What separates it from something like EQ is that the rewards are always very good xp and often items (sometimes your choice of items). They're things you would be killing anyway, only if 10 kills gets you 2500 xp, the quest reward will plop another 3000 on top of it.
Another thing that sets it apart is that the writing is excellent. They can manage to make basic "talk to these 5 people" quest lines develop into an epic scope.
There are plenty of others, quests that lead to unique boss encounters, saving lost people, etc. Basically, the quests in each zone tell the storyline behind the place. Last night I was solving a murder mystery, the night before I was stealthing into a tower and pickpocketing vital information from a boss that would kill me in one hit. Before that, I was defending a small town in the woods from a huge ogre that walks through and kills people nightly.
And there are a lot. You can only have 20 quests at a time, and it's extremely easy to fill that up if you just accept them all. You often have to pick and choose ones that look interesting.
I was a level 44 rogue in WoW beta as of this morning (level cap is 60) with about 6 days of /played. Most of the quests are soloable, but not all. They show up colored by difficulty, and usually tough ones are much easier if you just wait a couple levels to do them. What may take me a team of 3 at 35 is usually soloable by 38.
Blizzard has said explicitly that they want it to be possible for all classes to solo to 60, and from what I've seen they're living up to that. If I just grind xp and don't quest, the 40-45 levels take maybe 3-4 hours a piece (rogues tend to level solo faster than most classes, but not a lot faster). Really though, you usually won't be just grinding because the quests will overlap things you want to kill anyway, and the xp and item rewards are very good.
I went into the beta with low expectations and was completely blown away :)
The game is already twice as polished as most MMORPGs that have been out a while.
Anything other than a Vibe? :) In that class of cars... Civics, Accords, Eclipses, V6 Mustangs, etc.
It's a tuner's wet dream. What's that? Switched to larger injectors? No problem, let's load the program and update it for 550s....
Assuming that were possible, you wouldn't see yourself probably. You'd see the earth as it was a billion years ago, or something like that. But then again, no telescope on earth can see around the planet's curve and back to itself, so could a telescope in space see around the universe's curve (if it's there)?
This type of thing will prevent your average soccer mom from driving drunk, but will it prevent a 20-something who's even slightly into cars, or has a friend who's into cars? Probably not.
Am I the only one who thought, "What's wrong with Amazon selling Final Fantasy 2?"
It's extraordinarily inaccurate. You think hitting a 'perfect' burns more calories than hitting a 'great?' It's just another scoring system.
Warning: Do not point The Amazin' Lazer at police officers!
CONNERY: I'll take MY GREAT THING for 600, Alex. HOST: "Uh, That's MAGRATHEAN, Mr. Slartibartfast." CONNERY: "But my thing is great! That's what your mother said last night!"
Bombadil's presence doesn't help explain the background mythology, rather it is explained only by extensive extra background mythology. Jackson had to ask himself, what is that point of this scene, how does it add to the movie, and what does it mean to the casual fan? The sad answer is, in this case, he doesn't add a whole lot.
"Ted, Strange things are afoot at the Circle K," may be one of the most brilliant lines ever written.
Everything that you can possibly do has been done before and cataloged, and you must use the library for exactly and only those specific things. Go to Linux and you'll see people using common libraries to do bizarre things that their creators absolutely never would have thought of. That way of thinking and that flexibility of design just plain doesn't exist on the Windows side.
The Linux user may say, "How could I do this better?" but the Windows user says, "How would Microsoft intend for me to solve this problem?"
It's not like one more SCO story means one less story about something else.
Making untrue statements is a God-given right, you don't have to be a CEO to do that.
"The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how much I play, I'll never be as good a a wall. I played a wall once. They're fucking relentless...." --Mitch Hedberg
If they're already violating the law, how will a new law help catch them?
There is a very real conclusion. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not there.